How to Throw an Impromptu Wine Dinner

On Wednesday, July 17th The Ocean Room proudly hosted a spontaneous Wine Dinner featuring beautiful wine from Staglin Family Vineyard. Here are the following steps in throwing a great wine dinner on the fly!

Step 1: Location, location, location.

Step 2: Select a high caliber vino to highlight and invite the wine maker!

Founded in 1985 by Shari, Garen, Brandon and Shannon, Staglin Family Vineyard takes pride in the tradition of family ownership and participation. With an uncompromising commitment to quality, our mission is to produce world class wines that reflect the distinctive character of this historic Rutherford Bench estate. As stewards of this land we farm the vineyard organically, tap in to our solar fields for power and produce the wines in a state of the art underground production facility.

“It was a wonderful evening of incredible cuisine paired with my family’s wines complimented by the great company,” exclaimed Shannon Staglin, President at Staglin Family Vineyard. “I really enjoyed the smaller and more intimate setting allowing everyone to get to know each other and appreciate the meal together.”

Step 3: Prepare a menu to wow your guests!

Step 4: Factor in a reception hour as you greet your guests.

Attendees of the dinner celebrated the start of the evening with two ‘salus’ Staglin wines- 2011 Staglin Family Vineyard “Salus” Chardonnay and 2010 Staglin Family Vineyard “Salus” Cabernet Sauvignon picked specifically by Sommelier, Garth Herr. “To sum up Staglin Family Vineyard, Garth shared a few highlight facts, “Great reputation, small production, classic structured Napa wines and huge contributors to Mental Health research. Of these reasons, we jumped on the opportunity to do a dinner around their balanced and beautiful food friendly wines.”

Step 5: Service the dinner with some of the most talented wait staff you can find.

As our guests sat for dinner, Chef de Cuisine Jason Rheinwald greeted everyone with a brief opener of the preselected four course menu before them, introducing the flavors and cooking techniques which are about to be prepared. After speaking with the private dinner I asked Chef what he thought of tonight so far, here is what Jason shared with me, “I really enjoy the atmosphere in the room. It’s great when you can get a bunch of people who have never met to share a meal and talk about food and wine. It’s fun to have a few of our loyal and regular guests come together and talk all that is The Ocean Room.” Personally, I had the pleasure of spending most of my time that evening in the kitchen while each course was prepared. The since of energy and positivity between chefs and wait staff reminded me of how dedicated The Ocean Room team is in delivering an unparalleled experience to even our most seasoned, repeat guests.

Step 7: The most important step… always cheers to a successful and enjoyable evening with friends!

For more great photos from the evening, please visit The Ocean Room’s facebook page and follow us to learn about upcoming event such as this one! Looking to plan a wine dinner of your own soon? Call us and we’ll take care all of the work for you while you enjoy your time with your guests!